Analysis: A Salafi conspiracy in Boston bombings?

Apr. 28, 2013
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David A. Andelman / Handout

by David A. Andelman, Special for USA TODAY

by David A. Andelman, Special for USA TODAY

Lost in the fog of war surrounding the horror wreaked by the Boston bombers is the religious undercurrent that's just now emerging as the most likely trigger for this lethal band of brothers.

Conventional wisdom has it that the Tsarnaevs, with their origins as Chechens in the breakaway Russian region of the Caucasus mountains, should by rights have targeted their traditional enemy - Russia - and not Russia's enemy, the United States. Wrong.

Because these two young men, above all else, are Muslims. But not just any Muslims. They are Sunnis, indeed adherents of its most radical sect - the Salafis. Salafi warriors swept across the Arabian Peninsula nearly a century ago, wreaking havoc in the name of the king of the new nation of Saudi Arab. More recently, this same radical ideology is shared by the leadership of al-Qaeda. And the sworn enemy of al-Qaeda, from its earliest days, has been the United States - the Great Satan.

We should have known much of this long before the Tsarnaev brothers allegedly dropped their lethal pressure cookers curbside at the Boston Marathon. The Russians tipped us off. And if there's anyone who knows the Salafis well, and has tracked them for decades, it's members of the Russian security services.

For decades, violent Chechen revolutionaries, Salafis to the core, have sought to create the Caucasus Emirate - an independent nation, governed by strict sharia law that believes any shameless woman (short skirts, uncovered hair, certainly an adulteress or any wanton lady) must be killed by her father or brother for her "sins." For that matter, any man caught shoplifting must have his hand cut off in punishment. And of course, an infidel - Russian, American or any other variety - deserves to pay with his or her life.

Doku Umarov, the self-proclaimed Emir of the Caucasus boasts a network of acolytes from radical mosques across Dagestan and Chechnya. Moreover, he has starred in a host of Internet videos, dressed in camouflage fatigues and surrounded by fellow rebels brandishing machine guns, declaring in the words of the Prophet Mohammed, "He who dies and has not fought and had no intention to fight dies in one of the forms of hypocrisy." Fighting words that a young and impressionable visitor could easily carry as a badge of honor back home to Boston.

This process of radicalization in the Tsarnaevs' corner of the Caucasus began decades ago, indeed as soon as Communism ended in Russia and the freedom to travel abroad returned, not to mention the freedom to study and practice long banned forms of religion - especially Islam.

The demand for religious teachers quickly outpaced the supply, so Chechen students began heading to Saudi Arabia, site of the holiest Islamic city, Mecca, only to meet radical teachers at the very moment other radical clerics were making their way from Arabia and Turkey to Chechnya and Dagestan. Saudi oil money facilitated the rise of radical mosques from Pakistan across Afghanistan and into Chechnya - along with the ties to radical organizations like al-Qaeda.

One of the earliest skills brought by these radical clerics was a deep understanding of how to prey on receptive youth - ready to rebel against government or authority of any stripe. The goal? A single, global caliphate, a regime of sharia justice and death to infidels everywhere - a religion transferable far from Chechnya and its most immediate enemy, Russia. Under the circumstances, even the concept of the enemy of my enemy is my friend no longer prevails. Any infidel is fair game. And a visiting American would be a target simply too good to pass up.

The Russians, of course, keep close track of each such convert - local or visitor alike. Such careful attention is vital. After all, the very existence of their nation is at stake. Security officers quietly document everyone who enters a radical mosque, everyone who contacts a telephone used by a radical or even questionable person of interest. When they spot a new face, they investigate - potentially another enemy of the state. Because most are. Of course, such visitors could well be an enemy not only of the Russian state. Any government that's seen to be an enemy of Islam is a potential target. As Umarov has described his foes: "Putin and all the other infidel leaders."

Closely monitoring visitors is a tactic the FSB learned well from their KGB precursors. In the depths of the Cold War, I spotted such cameras in front of American embassies from Moscow to Prague to Warsaw, in every communist-era capital. These cameras captured the faces of everyone - Russians and Americans alike - who entered these buildings. And of course every telephone had at least the potential of being monitored at any moment.

The problem, then, becomes the issue of neutralizing such threats. And here, Russian security services, and apparently their American counterparts, have been somewhat less successful. Chechen and Islamic plots have left a wake of dead from Moscow to Grozny and now Boston. Vigilance is a key first step, but connecting the dots is essential, since vigilance by itself will hardly prevent a devastating attack by a trained fanatic on a mission.

David A. Andelman is the editor in chief of World Policy Journal, a 30-year-old global magazine and website dealing with international affairs.